Suspected Longmont ambulance thief has history of stealing vehicles

Fort Collins resident sentenced to prison several times

LONGMONT -- A Fort Collins man accused of taking a Longmont ambulance for a spin early Sunday morning is on parole for stealing a vehicle in 2010.

Paramedics were called to the 1900 block of Corey Street at about 3 a.m. to help an 83-year-old woman who'd fallen, Longmont Police Cmdr. Jeff Satur said. While in the home, they heard the beeping that indicates the ambulance was backing up, he said.

"They ran out and saw the ambulance driving down the street," Satur said.

Within minutes, a Longmont police officer saw the ambulance going south on Main Street from 19th Avenue. The ambulance finally stopped on the 1300 block of Main Street, where the driver was arrested.

Robert Taylor arrest report

Robert Elmar Taylor, 51, was arrested without incident on suspicion of aggravated motor vehicle theft and driving under the influence, according to his arrest report. He also was wanted by the Colorado Department of Corrections on a warrant to revoke his parole, according to Longmont police.

The Boulder County Sheriff's Office arrested Taylor for a different motor vehicle theft in January 2010; he pleaded guilty to attempted motor vehicle theft in August 2010 and was sentenced to 34 months in prison. It appears from court records that he spent the time between his arrest and sentencing in jail.

Taylor was released on paroled in April 2011, but it's not clear when the Department of Corrections obtained the warrant accusing him of violating parole.

He is being held at the Boulder County Jail and is scheduled to appear in court there at 2 p.m. today.

Taylor's criminal history dates back to at least 1983, however, according to court records. That year, he pleaded guilty in Boulder County to theft of more than $200.

According to Times-Call records, the 21-year-old Taylor would present himself as a member of a prominent local family to Longmont and Boulder County business owners, then ask them for money to bail his father out of jail.

His sentence in that case was not available Sunday.

In 1989, Taylor was arrested on suspicion of robbery, criminal extortion and being a habitual criminal. He also was arrested on suspicion of motor vehicle theft, escape and violating bond conditions in separate cases that year, according to court records.

After he pleaded guilty to robbery, second-degree burglary and forgery, he was sentenced in May 1990 to 15 years in prison, according to court and Department of Corrections records. It's not clear when he was released from that sentence.

However, in September 1996, Longmont police -- in a case that's oddly coincidental with Taylor's new case -- found Taylor at about 3 a.m., asleep in a car that had crashed through a fence at 418 Emery St. The car, a Honda Civic, had been stolen from Fort Collins.

Police then arrested Taylor on suspicion of burglary, theft and escape. He was sentenced that November to six years in prison.